ON THE ROAD is a French film adaptation of the Jack Kerouac novel of the same name directed by Walter Salles (The Motorcycle Diaries, Dark Water) and starring Sam Riley, Garrett Hedlund, and Kristen Stewart. Produced by Francis Ford Coppola, the story is based on the years Kerouac spent traveling America in the 1940’s with his friend ‘Neal Cassady’ and several other figures who would go onto fame in their own right, including writers William S. Burroughs and Allen Ginsberg. An array of other colorful characters including Viggo Mortensen, Amy Adams, Kirsten Dunst, Tom Sturridge, Danny Morgan, Alice Braga and Elisabeth Moss.

The Beat generation road trip film tells the story of Sal Paradise (Riley), who sets off on a cross country journey expressing the restless energy and desire for freedom that makes people rush out to see the world. Hedlund plays Sal’s friend Dean, who inspires him to see America, while Stewart plays his on-again-off-again wife Marylou. Viggo Mortensen also plays Old Bull Lee, a character loosely based on novelist William S. Burroughs, while Amy Adams plays Jane (an incarnation Joan Vollmer), the junkie mother of two kids, and Lee’s wife.